Can Bush Read?

President Bush insisted on Sept. 26 that a National Intelligence Estimate from this past April does not say that the war in Iraq has contributed to the spread of terrorism, as the New York Times alleged in an article published two days earlier that contained no direct quotes from the NIE. To prove his point, the president declassified one-tenth of the NIE and made that partial document available to the public. "You can read it for yourself," the president said. "Everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says."

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What does the report say?

On the plus side for President Bush, it says that if United States military forces withdrew anytime soon from Iraq, then al Qaida would use that perceived victory to recruit new members. That's bad news for any congressional Democrats who advocate removing troops in the near term.

But Bush was clearly wrong to suggest that the Times mischaracterized the NIE. The document he released says what the New York Times reported. Hey, don't take my word for it. Read it yourself, below and on the following three pages.

Note to readers: The format of this column has changed. Previously, footnotes appeared when you rolled your mouse over the highlighted passages. Now I ask you to click on the highlighted portions. The footnotes will remain there until you close them. You may need to reset your browser to allow popup windows.

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.

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